People on the same boat should help each other: A Feasibility Assessment for an Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA) in China

Abstract: Facing the challenges of climate change and energy depletion, the world needs to deploy more renewable energy to replace fossil fuels. As the largest energy consumer and carbon emitter, China’s sustainable energy transition is particularly important. Owning the vast offshore wind (OW) resources, the Chinese Government has set ambitious goals on OW that provides a reliable and reasonable alternative to fossil fuels. However, the deployment of OW energy faces challenges, including high cost, technical difficulties, and knowledge gaps. In China, the lack of innovation has caused a high failure rate and low generation efficiency. As the frontrunner on OW, the UK provides a valuable example to learn for China. The Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA) initiated and managed by the Carbon Trust plays a role in OW technical innovation in the UK. The OWA is developed based on the idea of innovation collaboration and that OW developers work together to prioritize their common technical needs and support the promising innovations. Working with the Carbon Trust Beijing Office, this thesis assesses the feasibility of forming an OWA in China. Primary and secondary data were collected to analyze the conveners, potential partners, and relevant authorities relating to the OWA. According to the analysis, there is low feasibility of forming an OWA in China in the current situation due to some fundamental limitations. First, the Carbon Trust and China Wind Energy Association (CWEA), the two conveners of the OWA, have sufficient knowledge and credibility but lacks funding. Second, the OW developers have few motivations because of a low level of interdependence, low sensitiveness to innovation risks, the innovation culture focusing on quick return, a high entry barrier to OW industry, and the current priority on construction. Third, the Chinese Government has issued policies to make the state-owned utilities “bigger and stronger” by providing more political and economic support, which further reduces the motivations of the OW developers to collaborate. Since the Chinese Government holds enormous power over the developers, forming an OWA may be feasible if the government supports the project. However, the obstacles existing in the OW market mean that an OWA cannot be sustained in the long-term.